Transcript of Local Hour: Hockey Is Back, Jack (Hughes) New

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

When it's on, then it's off, now the time is here.

It's all up and you're changing, you're going to fly.

It checks, it checks, you're going to make them cheer. Got the box under turban riding high. Now it's time for action, tonight's going to burn this bar right up.

Slapshot, we like the lap so nice.

Let's go for a break away on the chase to hit the cup.

Will we stand on our heads?

Will we meet a match in our eyes?

Hockey is bad, Jack. Is Hockey back? I don't know. They might cancel it up north, up in Canada way. Meantime, in these United States, I am stunned that people are busting to the degree that they are high and hello sports fans. This is not- Hey, yo. What's that? What's that? Yeah, well, yeah, that's what I meant. I I said what I said, Roy. Congratulations on the live show yesterday. Oh, thank you. Festive stuff, obviously, if you were rooting for the red, white, and blue. I mean, what's happening, man? Oh, you are properly attired, wearing perhaps the greatest American sports hero ever, Apollo Cree, the Count of Monte Fista. That's right.

The King of Sting, the Prince of Punch. To put into perspective what you're talking about, I went to a watch party at 6: 00 in the morning in Old Town, Scottsdale, yesterday. It was packed. All these people, including friends of mine who I did not know, liked hockey.

Closeted hockey fans?

Closeted hockey fans. Or maybe they were just like to experiment a little bit. You know what? You go through that phase. You say, Hey, you know what? Let me try this hockey thing.

The deja vu, as far as that goes, is striking. If you watch the Netflix documentary about the US hockey team winning it way back when, and the connection to the here and now. Obviously, massive differences, NHL players versus a bunch of school boys and otherwise, evil Soviets instead of- Evil Canadians. Yeah. Well, okay. The evil Canadians. Is exactly what you're talking about. But this about hockey, and as a lifelong hockey fan, I am struck by the fact that people do seem to be, once again, revisiting the sport that is otherwise largely ignored.

So as not a lifelong hockey fan, I think I have a reason for this because as I'm watching yesterday, the broadcast, they point out that USA has won the gold in Olympic hockey, obviously, Lake Placid, the famous one, and then one in 19- Squaw Valley I believe. 1960. 1960. And that's it. It blew my mind. I said, What do you mean? This is only the third time winning this? This is a massive deal because we're so conditioned that That American professional sports that we must be awesome at it on the international level. Nba, we're the best league. Guess what? We win gold in basketball almost every time. When we don't, something went horribly wrong. I know I felt that way. It's like, Wait, the NHL is here. I know it's a very international sport, but come on, man. Most of them are Americans. Come on, man. Who else has access to this facilities and stuff? Of course, they've won the most gold medals. To find out that yesterday was the third time, I'm like, Well, of course, this is Canada beating us in basketball. They got players, but it's like, Come on. This isn't their thing.

I guess so. Yeah, that makes some sense, but we're not good at soccer either, right? No. By that standard, we should be much better in the World Cup and otherwise, right?

We don't have a good professional league, though. That's the point. The grace that I gave USA Hockey was that because the most elite professional league in all land is here, clearly, we've got to be the best at it. Baseball might be the closest corollary, right? Where baseball is like, clearly, MLB is far and away the best baseball league in the world. And then the World Base Classic, you're like, oh, crap, man.

You've seen that Dominican team? Oh, my gosh.

But Team USA always expects to win.

They might not win it every year, but they've gotten to the final most years in the World Base Classic. I think they've won it once or twice, but they lost last time around to Japan.

They've had great games with the DR. They're the two favorites this year, USA and DR.

Well, the thing that strikes me, too, is you just mentioned the 6: 00 AM watch party that you went to. Why was everybody on the East Coast, in particular, complaining so much about the early start time? I know it's Sunday morning, and maybe some people like to sleep in, but who are these people? How late do you sleep on a Sunday? 8: 00 AM was too much for you?

8: 00 AM would have been a dream.

I want to It was pregame, though. That's the problem. I don't want to just start right today. I need to start a couple hours before, which I did.

Chris, I'm going to tell you, the good people of Scottsdale, Arizona started well before the 6: 00 AM.

Did they even close the previous night?

They had to. It's a 2: 00 AM last call, so they had to close. But there were people who had just been going. They just went and just kept it moving from last night all the way into Sunday morning.

I have some friends that went from a strip club establishment to elbow room. I They were at a strip establishment from 4: 00 to 7: 00 to 30: 00 AM, and then left the elbow room.

The way that you set it up seems like you were going to protect it.

I was going to.

You just straight up strip club.

A young bar establishment.

Did you mean to say gentleman's establishment?

I don't know what I was doing. I got caught up in the air.

This is the way you can live. Don't you see on the East Coast? This is how we live on the West Coast all the time. Is this now going to be... I don't know if everybody is now going to jump in on hockey stateside, but is everybody now on the East Coast going to pine to see their sporting events on the weekend start a little earlier? Because once you get used to it, and it doesn't take long, Saturdays and Sundays and football season, it is the reason to live in the West Coast. You wake up and the football is kicking off at 9: 00 AM. It's way better than waiting.

Dave, these people over here, I'm not going to say specifics, but these people who work here, live in Miami, sometimes they've got a flight to the West Coast for something to hear them complain about, Oh, my God, what are you talking about? Football starts at 10: 00. I'm like, That's the greatest thing ever. You understand? I go through a whole Sunday and be done with Sunday night football, and it's a reasonable hour.

But now I'm waking up in a panic because it's nine o'clock and I got an hour. I got to get I got to get my fantasy line upset. Now on the East Coast, I got time, baby. I would way prefer the West Coast in terms of time slots.

To be able to be done with Sunday Night Football and still be able to do something with the rest of my night would be incredible. No, no. What I want to do is I want to crawl into my bed unshowered at about 11: 45, 12: 00 at night. My wife's like, You've been watching football all day. I'm like, I know. I exactly know. Because I get to get out of things like, Oh, we've got dinner with these people tonight. You're done with football at 7: 30, right? I'm like, Yeah, 8: 00, we've got this dinner. I don't want to do that. I want to watch bangles, lions. Late dinner for Sunday night.

Sunday night football.

How old are we, guys? Come on. What are we doing? That was one of the best international sports moments in American history. It was the first Olympic gold medal on the men's side of my lifetime. We finally conquered the Canadians. It was a walk-off, game-winning goal from Jack Hughes. An incredible moment in which the Canadians, arguably, I know many of them are saying it, they outplayed the US in this game. And yet it's one of the rare reports that the United States gets to be a scrappy underdog. They finally knock Canada off the top of the mountain. That was incredible yesterday. What are we talking about with 8: 00 AM call time and 6: 00 AM call time?

You're right. I got distracted there. Please, guy in the NHL hat, which is ironic since the NHL proper doesn't really like their players going off to play in the Olympics, but the players themselves did, and it was a joyous event. I am surprised, Mike, by the reaction. I'm usually surprised by major news events, how big they get. I am surprised over the last 24 hours by the national reaction. I had no idea it would be this significant. It seems to have obscured the entire two weeks of the Olympics otherwise.

I'm not even sure how many people know how long the NHL players have been away from this competition. But the last moment that we saw of these players on Olympic ice, I believe, was that incredible overtime winner in Vancouver, and Canada wins the gold. And then last year, you had the brilliant joke of the Four Nations that really set the table up for this moment. You had the battle in Montreal that the United States won, but Canada wins ultimately in the end. I think with this core, you had a nice story, table set so wonderfully by the Four Nations, that you knew the players when it came to this game. You knew what was on the line. It was embedded. Even the people that follow the sport as tangentially as possible knew the deal headed into yesterday. I thought it was an incredible moment, the game winner, the game itself. Of course, for those that have a deep interest in US hockey and go back with this team some, the Johnny Goudreau stuff. There were plenty of moms that had no idea about the story that were crying by the time that Goudreau's kids hit the ice and the jersey was there.

It was just an incredible moment.

I had a different experience because some of these names, obviously, I knew about the bad blood from the Four Nations, from you guys prattling incessantly about it. But I recognize most of the names, a lot of the names. Obviously, my man Brad Marchand and guys like that.

I love how you're like, I know all the names, and you struggled with finding all the names.

I recognize a lot of names. The best player, to me, was the goalie. And I'm like, Who he played for? Winnipeg. I've never heard that name once on this show. Not once. This dude is incredible.

Because he never got past the second round. Yeah, Hela Buck has been in Vesna Conversations goalie of the year. But yeah, we're not getting in deep on Winnipeg Jets hockey here on this show. But he was phenomenal. The save that he made on Taves with the stick, it was just an unreal performance.

He was incredible. To me, the corollaire, I always try to translate things in basketball. It's like, okay, we don't get deep on Minnesota Timberwolves basketball here. But I say Anthony Edwards, I'm like, yeah, we all know who he is. For that name, I'm like, this guy's amazing. We've never talked about him once on the show.

But Hellebuck and Austin Matthews both get to wash off the stink of not being able to win in a big spot. Not true for Connor McJeezus, who continues, I know he wins the Four Nations last year, but this is now becoming a career-long plague of this guy, no showing in big spots. And somehow, he still got... Just like he got the Khan smite against the Florida Panthers in a losing- I thought that was the internet trolling me.

He actually won MVP of the Olympics?

Yeah, the IIHS had an MVP.

I thought they were just doing the thing of the way he won.

Zero points and had a breakaway in the gold medal game. Big spot. He forgot to shoot the puck.

Literally, have you watched it? He like seven deep.

Yeah, if you watched the play, he was so busy trying to cast a spell on Hellebuck, he cast a spell on himself and forgot to shoot the puck and just ran it right into his pads. That was zero points. Mvp of the tournament? What are we doing? That was wild.

Because they do the whole tournament. We're conditioned here that The MVP is the guy in the last game who killed it. I don't care.

He was on the losing team, too. Does that matter as well?

They do it for the whole tournament.

That's how it- Well, not only do they do it for the whole tournament, the vote comes in during the first intermission.

Which is insane, Roy, right?

I mean, you got a finite amount of time to get this vote in and do the tabulation.

To be clear, let's just assume Team USA was down six going into the third, and then one player scores seven goals in the third. He doesn't win MVP.

Then they do a revote. They have that in writing. If that happens, they do a revote. That's wild. You just made that up.

How tough are the language issues that you have to submit your vote two periods in advance of the end of the game?

They got to translate everyone's answer. What does that say?

I think it's border on funny right now because Connor McDavid, considered by many to be arguably on track to be the greatest player of all time. I understand. We'll talk about the Cindy Crosby stuff.

How could he be the greatest player of all time?

Give me some names. Everyone points to him and says, That's a guy right now. For whatever reason, when there are these huge moments, he looks across the ice and he sees a player that's a lesser player than him, certainly- So slow. Matthew Kchuck. A far less talented skater than him. And this Matthew Kchuck thorn in his side is just there constantly. At 11. Florida is going to, I mean, right now, probably in all likelihood, going to miss a play house because they've been so hurt. But Matthew Kuchuk just continues this unreal run. Back to back Stanley Cups. Oh, this is a down year? I'll win gold for the first time since 1980. They're going to be parting across the street.

Are they at 11: 00 right now?

They're going to be at 11: 00 later tonight.

Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.

Everything else?

Everything else.

Wearing clean underwear every day?

Well, that's just a personal decision.

Brushing your teeth?

Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Never PP on an electric fence.

Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drink ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

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Dan Levatard.

This guy comes in as the next Wayne Gretsky. His nicknames include the Chosen One and McJesus. He's a great player. He scores A lot of goals. He scores a ton of assists, but it hasn't translated to making Edmonton a powerhouse in the league.

They're in the final. Stugatz. What's your nickname for him?

Mcoverrated. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugatz. I was thinking about that. Of all the NHL brands out there, the greatest winner is probably the Florida Panthers. Right? Because you guys are now, you're still basking in the glow of your cups and everything, and it just completely erases the fact that you're going to be watching the NHL playoffs this year from home, right?

Well, Bill Zito was the assistant general manager for a team USA. There was that. And Seth Jones was named to the initial roster, but I had to say home because of injury. I think the true testament to the Florida Panthers here is that their gold medal celebration. I know there was a blizzard in the northeast. They probably altered plans. But after New York shut down, they're like, Well, the Panthers celebrations at 11: 00 look plenty fun. That seems like a great proper hockey town. This is where we're going to celebrate our first hockey men's gold medal since 1980, 11 nightclub in Miami. That is how the Florida Panthers have changed hockey.

Buddy, where else would they go? Why would they go anywhere else, even if there wasn't a blizzard? Are you kidding me? Hey, guys, we can either go to Miami or go to New York and bundle up some more. We've been cold for the last month over there in Milan or 14 or wherever the hell they play those games. You're going to make me come over here, freeze my ass a bit more.

No, I want some sunshine. You just described what's happening to the NHL over the last half decade, too. Edmonton, Calgary, or Florida. Win a pick. This is what the farm boys up there continue to think. Mike and everybody else in there. I'm fascinated, obviously, by the context that history gives us with these things. So I try not to lionize the past too much, but I also try not to to overcelebrate the here and now. Mike Arruzioni is a name, I think. In fact, I brought it up last Friday. Everybody who doesn't care about hockey, I think, can put the asterisk and say, At least I know who Mike Arruzioni is.

Of course I do. But Jeremy doesn't know. So can you explain it to Jeremy?

Everybody knows Arruzioni. Is the same true 40 years, 50 years from now with Jack Hughes? Is he now a legend for all of time with American sports fans?

Yeah, well, I don't know if everybody knows the name Michael Arruzioni. We're sports fans. We know the name Michael Arruzioni. So I think within these circles, yes, I do think that Jack Hughes is going to have a name in a moment that is going to ring eternal, no doubt.

He's got that picture with the teeth. That's the one, Did that happen banging into the board?

No, it was a high stick.

It was a high stick by Sam Bennett. Did you see- Sam Bennett, that's the name I know.

The whole team, his celebration into the boards, I thought his face just got smashed. I guess it makes more sense.

No, it was a double minor, that Benny guy.

Oh, that double minor. Jack Hughes. Jews. It felt like after we made the kill, we had five on three against us in the second period. From that point on, we got dominated. The fact that we got to overtime, it could have been four to one, that second half of that game.

Well, the irony with the three on three and it going to overtime, and you could see this black cloud gathering as it got closer and closer. People for at least a week were complaining about the three on three solution.

I bet you Canada is right now.

Well, they picked it up before it even started. But the irony of that is, I will say, without getting too deep in the weeds on specifically the Puck, is the three that they threw out there are better than anyone that the US could possibly conjure to put out there. And those are the three guys that were on the ice for the game losing goal from Canada's side. I mean, they had Makar, who is in the conversation, if you aren't aware of Keel Makar, is in the conversation or will be by the time he retires as one of the three best defensemen in the history of the sport. Absolutely. You have McJeesus out there and you have McKinnon out there. And those are the three that were out there when Jack Hughes scored that goal.

Mckinnon missing that wide open net. Mcavoy behind Hellebuck, saving that puck from going across the line. Awesome moments in this game.

Hockey purist, what is more offensive? The three-on-three in overtime or the golden goal rule in overtime?

What's the golden goal? The golden goal will always exist, which is- It's always been a golden goal in overtime? It's always a walk-off goal, yeah. Whoever scores a goal in overtime- What was the one when T.

J. O. Shey scored on penalty shots?

Where you keep sending the same guy out on penalty shots?

That was a worse solution, right? It was a great moment for O.

Shey.

Yeah, it was neat looking, but it was unsatisfying way, same as the World Cup is, to end on PKs. I'm not a soccer fan, but I can see why that stinks.

Hockey Pears question part 2. When did the rink shrink? Didn't it used to be massive?

Just in the Olympics. No, the Olympics used to be massive.

It used to be massive. That's why Will Bond used to love the Olympics.

Honestly, it neutralized a bit of an advantage that Canada has because they have much better skaters, whereas if you shrink the rink, the K'Chucks brothers inability to skate seems a lot less visible.

I also... This is one of the signature moments of this millennium for sports fans, I think. I hate to be a curmudgeon.

No, you don't. I feel like you love to be that. You love being a curmudgeon.

You love part of your DNA. That's right down your lane. Mike Fuente says you're a hater. You hate everything.

Tony, incorrect. I don't want to be that. This is what the world does to me. Don't you see? I want to be a ray of sunshine, but I can't help it. The facts go against my ability to do that. I think that I have to just say on a short list, and we'll get into it in a little bit, one of the worst calls of a classic sports moment that I've ever experienced. I was like, Wait, what? That's it, right? I mean, before, I can't feel like the puck is in the net before the play-by-play guy acknowledges the puck is in the net, and the tournament is over, and the USA has won. It was overwhelming, to say the least. That moment. Nevertheless, the Jack Hughes goal is going to stand. You don't know if Jack Hughes name is going to resonate decades from now?

I think it will. I think it will because that's going to be a highlight. They went on a walk off against their arch rival when they weren't expected to do so. Jack Hughes was at the center of it, and he's a pretty good player. He's a young player. He's got to stick around the pros for a long time. Every time that his name is brought up in the mainstream sports media We'll see at that moment. We'll follow him shortly thereafter, I think.

You know what, Chris, we do have some bad calls.

Which one you want to hear first? I got Joe Buck, David Tyree. This is the one we got here.

I feel bad because... All right, let's get into it. Albert had provided the call. Which Albert? Kenny Albert. Kenny Albert. Kenny Albert provided the call on that. Which Albert?

It was a surprise. Yes. It was a shock comeback from Marv.

Juju put it on the poll. Is there always an Albert calling the game?

I hate to go at Joe Buck, who generally does Dynamite work and has caught a lot of crap over the course of his career for reasons I'm not exactly clear about. But legitimately, he would explain why this call isn't great. But let's hear it anyway, the Tyree catch.

Pressure from Thomas off the edge. Eli Manning stays on his feet, airs it out down the field. It is caught by Tyree. Inside the 25 and a timeout taken. Oh, my God.

He did have no idea that he caught it against his helmet. He just saw a Scrum and the ball is secure and the rep is calling catch. That's why he called it that way.

I see. I think I could swear I've asked him about this specifically. He said he didn't know that the ball was definitely caught and he would have felt like a Jackass. This is my assumption. He would have felt like a Jackass. It was like, The ball hit the ground, man. And you're screaming and shouting about that. And now you look like a fool. And so he was cautioning against doing that. I remember that- It's a catch. They got that ball. Yeah, he got that one.

I remember that play from the Super Bowl. I'm watching the Super Bowl as a Giants fan, and we're like, Oh, great. It's a catch. And it wasn't until the replay we realized how he caught it, and that's when we lost our mind. And so I'm not going to call that a bad call because hindsight is 2020, sir.

I'm not getting... Listen, Joe Buck has provided some great calls as well. In fact, one of my favorite calls of all time. But first, let's do the bad ones here. Another guy who may be... I think Al Michael's is my favorite, as I said on Friday. His mastery for those in 1980, if you go back and listen to those games, those highlights, how great he is is second to none. Keith Jackson is also on that list, though, for a great play-by-play, guys. For all his great deeds, one of his last shots was the Vince Young shutdown in the Rose Bowl against USA. Underwhelming. Fourth and five, the national championship on the line right here. He's going for the corner. He's got it.

Vince Young scores.

You also have to keep in mind without the visual. Without the visual, he's in the end zone for roughly 27 seconds before he's like, He's got it. Yeah, the indicator, Keith, is all his teammates mobbing him in the end zone.

0 for 2. Again, he let it breathe. That's what they teach television, Bronk. You're not doing a radio. They're not doing that. He's doing TV. Let the picture tell the story. The crowd on Beyoncé, and then he can say something cool like that. I disagree with you on both those goals.

You don't know it either. Same thing as the Jack Hughes goal. It's unclear when you're watching it. Wait, is it a goal? Did Vince Young step out there? Was he definitely in the end zone?

You just said it was clear because you saw his teammates mobbing him in the end zone.

Okay. All right. Tony agrees with it.

I'm with Amin here. You're completely off base as usual. What else you got, Chris? From my experience, a celebration in the end zone means you still have That's the way to beat. You have to wait after the fireworks. You have to wait after the helmets. You have to wait after the helmets go in the air.

Are you going to keep zagging now? Rip the Tostitos bag. He's going to now play the good ones.

You're going to be like, I don't like that one. Okay, play the good ones. Let's hear it.

Okay, which one's first here?

We have Al Michael's, the classic 1980 call. The greatest of all.

The hand is there. The punk is still loose. 11 seconds. You've got 10 seconds. The countdown going on right now. Morrow, up to Schult. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in Miracle? Yes. I'm unbelievable. Okay, you know what? That brings up something that I wanted to ask you guys anyway. So you just saw what happened, Jack Hughes and all of that. And then we go all the way back to this game. I don't think there's... I mean, I know. There's not a sporting event, even with my team is playing in. It's Antonio Holmes catching that breakdown pass with however many 34 seconds left. There's no sporting event, immacular reception. The number one sporting event to go to would be that game against the Soviets, right? There's no comparison, right?

They're after Carson Beck with his legs, right?

That call is all right. You know how it would be better? Imagine if Gus Johnson did it.

Now you're talking. Is there a sporting event that you'd rather have gone to at any point in man's recorded history than the US beating the Soviets? For sure. Name it.

How about Michael Jordan beating Georgetown as a freshman with a jumper?

I You do all of these because you want to have a good conversation.

You want to impress the ball room. At the cocktail party, you want to have the best story. The game is Malice at the Palace.

That's a good one. That's a good one.

Yeah, I feel like that immacular reception, at least in Pittsburgh, is the equivalent of claiming you went to Woodstock. I was there for that one. Everybody loves to make that claim. I can't imagine any better than beating the Sylvies. This The thing, the comparison, the side-by-side comparison over 46 years is, one was Canada, the other was the evil Soviet Union. What are we talking about, everybody?

Well, one was in Milan, the other one was in Lake Placid. I think I'd rather be in Milan.

Now we're the bad guys.

What about Wilt's 100-point game?

Okay.

I would have loved to have seen anybody that was there for that. Greg Cody saw it on TV? Yeah, he did. This is becoming urban legend.

I'll tell you another one that I would really be in my top three, probably, events to have been a part of as an objective sports fan is this one with Kirk Gibson, the hero of the LA Dodgers in 1988, punctuating things on one leg. The The probability of this, too, is you have to go back and get into the moment of, well, he can't play. It's the equivalent of Sidney Crosby not being able to play for Canada yesterday or Willis Reid.

Willis Reid, if he would have came out in overtime. He's going to go. Sydney Crosby Kyrgipson came out in overtime.

Kyrgipson came back. Sorry. He's our MVP. He's the league's MVP. Unfortunately, he's not available against the mighty Oakland Athletics and their greatest closer, Dennis Eccersley. We have no chance. But what else are we going to do? Put him out there on one leg.

But the game right now is at the plate. High fly ball into right field. She is gone.

Are we clapping in the press box?

It is, Vin Scully.

In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.

That's- Goosies.

But that's Vin Scully, too. You know what I mean? The greatest ever.

I don't believe what I just saw is another great one. Do you have the Joe Buck call, the homage to his old man Jack? That's the double down. Kirby Pucket hits the home run in game for the Twins against the Braves in '91, obviously the fourth game seven. And Jack Buck quips almost as Kirby's ball flies over the left field wall, and we will see you tomorrow night. And then Joe Buck, a generation later, honors his old man by making the exact same call.

Yeah, I don't have that one, but I do have you calling him Joe Buck.

I hate to go with Joe Buck.

Joe Buck.

Listen, I didn't fly across the East United States to be attacked. Not when I'm trying to celebrate. This is what we do. This is a moment for our nation to come together and instead, Chris Cody, a senseless attack. I don't understand, I mean, what goes on.

That's welcome to the show. That's what we do around here, buddy. A 100-point game. Not a bad idea.

Mike Ryan's in there, and he's the one with a baby. He's the one who's got to worry about what the future is. And Mike Ryan bet on DraftKings because Mike Ryan bet on us. This is the bet you're afraid of doubling down on, putting up a billboard in Edmonton? Stugatz. I care more about Matthew Kitchuk than I do my daughter. This is the Don Levatard show with the Stugatz.

I do have my favorite call of all time.

James catches, puts up a three.

Long go. Rebound box.

Back out to Alan.

History part of-Tie game with five, That would be a pretty dope game to be at.

The greatest.

I won't lie.

Imagine that. Stugatz.

Stugatz left.

He left early that game.

He left early. Did he try to come back in? Was he one of the people outside? Doors were locked.

Is that true? Very true. That's a true story. A lot of fans did. There were viral videos.

Dave, the game was over. The season was over. The series was over. The blueprint was over. The MF and ropes were all day.

People were leaving because they couldn't bear to watch the heat news again. I remember the story. No, you don't remember.

You clearly don't remember. I didn't feel it.

I didn't feel it. I was not emotionally invested in it, but I do remember that that was the story coming off of that one. A third of the heat fans ditched the joint and missed the shot.

It's one of the greatest quotes of all time because Ray Allen hits the shot and he says, Get those effing ropes out of here. Because the ropes are, that's it. The trophy's coming out. Larry O'Brien over there. San Antonio, congratulations. And so Ray Allen hits the shot and he says, There will be no ropes Tony, I already know your answer to this.

Anybody else, anybody rooting red, white, and blue, does this feel at all diminished by the fact that the captain... Mcdavid is great, but the captain of the team was Sydney Crosby, and he is the winner. Not... Mcjeezus may be more gifted, but the winner when the chips are down and you got as clutch a guy as there's been. 87. Sydney Crosby couldn't go. Roy, how say you? Is this diminished at all that he wasn't out there for you?

I mean, they certainly could have used him on that five on three because the greatest power play unit probably ever got diminished on that. Who did they have to throw out there? Sam Reinhardt. Oh, my God. Really? He was on the original one. He was on the initial one. Who was the Sydney replacement? I may history forever remember that Canada was without its fifth best player on that gold medal game.

I mean, shame on you. Is that really your thought on that?

In terms of actively, how good they are? Yeah, I'd say Cindy Crosby is their fifth best player right now.

Do you think if Cooper were asked, who are the guys? You get the pick. Who do you definitely want out there?

Now you're talking politics, which I often call politics.

Do you think he would say, Well, I'd rather have McDavid than Crosby for this gold medal game?

I'm sure he would say that, but- No, I don't think that.

I think if you said, Let's hook you up to a lie detector, who do you definitely want in this game? I think he might go Kael Mccar one and Crosby two.

Okay, I disagree. I don't think Crosby is at the level of McKinnon this year or McDavid this year.

That's not the point.

The point is- I would say Celabrini is right now better. Celabrini right now is better than Cydney Crosby is.

I'm not debating that. I'm not debating who's more productive night in and night out.

I think that's important.

I think I can hammer this point home. Do you remember when Dwyane Wade was full washed?

Yeah.

But Spoh just kept going home in the fourth quarter. That guy has to shoot. I was like, why are they giving it to the guy to drop a three for the guy hasn't had three since December? You kept saying, because he's a winner, because he's three. No, no, no, no, no. That's what he's saying. He's doing the same argument.

They were without Cydney Crosby. We were with JT Miller and Vinnie Trochek. It's a push. Trochek would have faced off for you, though. It's a push.

Also, in his final year, Dwyane Wade did hit a game-winning buzzer beater against the Golden State Warriors because he was fed the ball after he came back.

It was a bank shot, wasn't it? It was a bank shot from the top to the middle.

He make the shot?

Oh, the Flannies at what shots?

Does it make any difference to anybody out there now as we transition back into the NHL? It was a weird event. I'm a curmudgeon about it. I would much rather them do something like a Canada Cup type of thing that It happens before the season starts. I hate the three-week disruption to the league. No, the other three major league in the US would not do that. They would not lower themselves.

They absolutely would. If the Olympics were in the middle of the NBA season, they would take an Olympic break. The WNBA does it.

The WNBA- Baseball doesn't. The MLB doesn't break its season up.

That's because the World Baseball Classic is a contrived thing. It's not real.

Contrived or not, the NHL or hockey The Hockey World could do that. They've already done it with the Canada Cup and the Summit Series and whatever else. They don't interact. It's very weird now that we're supposed to hit pause because it's in promotion of the sport, even though there's no evidence that it really brings in enduring new fans.

The prestige of the Olympics is above everything else. To the players. And to the nation, to the public, right?

This number will be huge.

Oilers Jets is going on at the same time as the Olympics. No one's watching that.

I would say this number towards- Those are teams, right? Oilers Jets.

Yes.

The number of- The NFL. The number that Oilers, Panthers made on TV, this number is probably going to dwarf that.

In 1978, you could have watched a Jets and Oilers NFL game, too, right? At the same time. Right. Yeah, they could play each other. That used to be a great trivia question. There were double downs on a. There were the Panthers, and there still are in two sports. Anyway, I'm going to... Jets and oilers are now.

We got time. That's why they had to call them the football giants way back when. The New York football giants. Because there was a baseball giant in town.

That's right. No qualms at all? No. This doesn't feel diminished, tainted on any level that the other team's tapping couldn't go?

No. Honestly, I didn't even think about them.

No. Okay, their unbelievable power play has one less unbelievable player on it, and they just replace them with another incredible player. I understand Sydney's had a great season and still a very good player, but their fifth best player.

If this bums you out, Canadians, I'm sorry, but this is the way it goes in sports. This is the thing that Broncos fans are doing right now to anybody who will listen. I've got to tell you, like Broncos, we would have beaten the Patriots. We would have won that game, obviously, if Bo Nicks had gone. We beat the Patriots. If Nicks goes, like nobody gives a Nobody is ever going to care. You can sit at the bar with your buddies who are Broncos fans and in 37 years complain about the fact we would have beaten the Seahawks. We would have gone to the Super Bowl and we would have beaten that team. You'll complain and complain, and don't tell it to anybody other than your friends because nobody... Canadians, We three on three, and we didn't have Crosby. Nobody is ever going to care. No one's ever going to recall that other than your fellow Canadians.

For that very reason, this is why the greatest sports pontificator of all time is the man who usually sits in that chair, Dan Levatard, because you're saying, Hey, no one cares that Sid didn't play. No one cares that Bo Nixon didn't play. Dan took it another level. He says, All my guys played. We still had the better team than the Seahawks. He's all about the Rams and the Seahawks. After the Super Bowl, Dan still sitting there like, I don't believe you. Sports are an imperfect measurement.

That's what Nathan McKinnon is trying to do. Nathan McKinnon, we were the better team. Congratulations, fella.

Second place. I'm still trying to remind people that Bam and Goren were out for that bubble finals for extended periods of time.

Amen. No one listens. Everyone for the Lakers was hurt when the Pistons won their first title.